Un an après le Printemps Arabe, la demande reste sous pression (Arab Spring one year on Demand remained under pressure)
One year since the beginning of the Arab Spring, demand has yet to return to Egypt, Bahrain and the Levant region according to the 2011 year-end data from STR Global, the leading provider of market data to the hotel industry.
In Cairo, Egypt, where protests have been widely broadcasted, occupancy declined by 29.5 percentage points to 36.1 percent in 2011 and average daily rate (ADR) declined by 3.3 percent to EGP706.26. In the usually popular leisure destinations of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and Hurghada, Egypt, occupancy reached 48.1 percent (-38.6 percent) and 57.2 percent (-28.7 percent), respectively. Unlike Cairo, ADR decreased more in Sharm El Sheikh (-17.3 percent) to EGP333.69 and Hurghada (-6.2 percent) to EGP329.15, as hoteliers tried to maintain demand volume by lowering rates.
In the Levant region, demand declined in the main cities such as Beirut, Lebanon (-12.2 percent), and Amman, Jordan (-6.8 percent). It resulted in a RevPAR drop by 22.2 percent in Beirut and 9.2 percent in Amman, despite that most of the unrest has been taking place in Syria and Egypt.